The U.S. government is in negotiations with the European Community over future
links between the global positioning system (GPS) navigation satellites and
a new constellation called Galileo.
European nations are spending $80 million this year to begin development of
the Galileo constellation, which is designed to provide similar services to
the U.S. GPS but, unlike GPS, it will not be free to users.
Heading the U.S. negotiations is Jeffrey P. Bialos, deputy undersecretary of
defense for industrial affairs. He kept these duties when he came to the Pentagon
from the State Department, which is the agency in charge of GPS-related international
agreements.
Part of the ongoing negotiations, said Bialos during a recent interview, is
to determine "if it makes sense to deploy a Galileo global navigation system.
"Our view is that GPS is a viable, soon to be modernized, effective and
free public navigation system. It's up to them whether to build [Galileo] or
not."
Assuming that the Europeans will move forward with deployment sometime during
the next decade, Bialos said, "we are exploring avenues of cooperation
... If they do build it, we would like to see systems that are interoperable."
Part of a future agreement between the United States and the European Community
would be "market access in both directions," he said. There would
be provisions to ensure existing GPS signals are not interfered with and to
avoid direct user fees, he added.
Bialos denied that the United States would expect Galileo to be "just
like GPS," but he said the goal is to be "interoperable." One
significant obstacle in the negotiations is the financial arrangement, which
funds Galileo through a private-public partnership, unlike GPS, which is all-government
funded. To generate revenue, Galileo would become a mandatory navigation system
for all European nations. "That gives us concern," said Bialos.
He does not foresee that the United States would provide any development funds
toward Galileo. There are proposals to share the so-called L5 "safety-of-life"
signal that GPS will make available for civilian use in 2005, said Bialos. "Having
one safety-of-life signal would be mutually beneficial."
Air Force Col. Peter F. Hoene, deputy system program director at the GPS Joint
Program Office, believes GPS "needs to be interoperable and compatible
with Galileo," he told a recent industry conference. "I don't want
to see a system that would end up causing us [interference] or other problems."
Hoene would like to see cooperation, however, to the extent that Galileo could
be used to augment GPS. "If the Galileo becomes a solution, then we should
integrate Galileo in our overall architecture studies."
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